Seriously, put down whatever you’re doing and take a moment to read this. Facebook will still be there when you finish.
A very thought provoking article on the relationship between the Citizen and the Soldier:
The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors.
This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can’t share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.
The consequences of this unique milestone in American history are many — the rise of a new warrior class, the declining number of Americans in public life with the sobering experience of war, the fading ideal of public service as a civic responsibility.
But above all, I think, is a perilous shrinking of common ground, the shared values and knowledge and beliefs that have shaped the way Americans think about war. Without it, how will soldiers and civilians ever see this war and its outcome in the same way? Are those faded “Support the Troops” magnets enough to guide us through what is likely to be the murky and unsatisfactory conclusions and aftermaths of this era’s conflicts?
But above all, I think, is a perilous shrinking of common ground, the shared values and knowledge and beliefs that have shaped the way Americans think about war. Without it, how will soldiers and civilians ever see this war and its outcome in the same way? Are those faded “Support the Troops” magnets enough to guide us through what is likely to be the murky and unsatisfactory conclusions and aftermaths of this era’s conflicts?
Read the rest at Politics Daily
Libertas and Latte 